The document discusses the environmental crisis facing the Earth. It defines key terms like environment, ecosystem, environmental crisis, and ecological catastrophe. It describes the effects of pollution on human health like respiratory issues and diseases. Infrastructure is also damaged by pollutants corroding buildings. There are high economic costs to deal with health issues and repairs. The main causes of the environmental crisis are population growth which leads to deforestation, technological advances that require more resource exploitation and waste production, and increasing human consumption patterns driving further resource extraction.

1. An Ailing Earth

3. Some key terms
 Environment?
 Environment refers to everything around us that we can see
and experience.
 Ecosystem?
 Interaction of the living and non-living components of the
environment. It includes all the parts of a living
environment, including the plants and animals, AND the non-
living components, such as water, air and the sun's energy.

5.  Environmental crisis?
 An acute situation in the environment that may cause the
earth to be destroyed by human activities.
 Ecological catastrophe?
 The destruction of ecosystem by human activities.

6.  Pollutants?
 Harmful substances added to environment
 Pollution?
 Release of harmful substances to the environment which
causes the environment to have undesirable changes

7. Effects of environmental crisis on humans
 Human is part of the earth’s ecosystem, thus the destruction
of ecosystems will surely affect our well-being.
 Damage to health
 Damage to buildings and structures.
 High Economic cost

8. Damage to health
 Pollutants in the air can cause
irritation of the eyes, nose,
throat and skin.
 People may also experience
difficulty in breathing.
 People may also suffer lung
diseases due to the polluted air.

9.  Rubbish and waste that are
not properly disposed of can
cause the breeding of germs
and pests such as flies, rats
and cockroaches.
 Infectious diseases such as
diarrhea and malaria
can result in death.

10. Damage to buildings and structures
 Environmental pollution causes
damage to buildings and structures.
 Chemicals in the air can cause
the paint on cars and buildings to peel.
 The polluted air can also
corrode and discolor buildings,
statues and monuments.

11. High economic cost
 The impact of environmental pollution on health and
buildings and structures has resulted in extra cost for the
people and the government.
 Economic cost is loss of income or increase of expenditure as
result of pollution problems.

12. Causes of environmental crisis
 Population increase
 Technology
 Human consumption patterns

13. Population growth
 More forests are cleared for agriculture and settlement and
infrastructure.
 Forests are the tools used to absorb CO2, so deforestation is
a contributor to global warming.

14. Technological changes
 Without technology, humans cannot make full use of natural
resources. But, with it, there is an increase in exploitation of
resources to produce goods. More raw materials, electricity
are needed to mass produce goods and to run factories.
 Also, waste from those factories is the main pollutant to soil,
ground water, and rivers because waste is disposed
improperly on the ground and into the rivers

15. Human consumption patterns
 As people become richer, there is also a greater demand for
goods. People need cars, expensive materials. In this way,
more natural resources have to be exploited.